Cougars fall to La Serna

DOWNEY - Granite Hills girls soccer coach Mike Bradbury believes that the first goal scored in a section championship often determines the winner.

On Saturday, La Serna scored in the 5th minute and rolled from there. The No. 3 Lancers shut out the No. 4 Cougars 4-0 in the CIF-Southern Section Division IV championship match at Downey High School.

"At the beginning of a game like this, you look toward the seniors and upperclassmen that have been here before - we've got five girls who've been here - to lead the youngsters," Bradbury said, "and even they were a little in shock."

The Cougars (20-6-2) fell short of winning at least a share of their second section division title in three seasons. They tied Notre Dame Academy in 2006 to share the Division V crown. The Cougars have gone to at least the semifinals in each of the last four seasons.

"We were always the underdog in everything we did," said senior captain Megan Bodiford. "Most people wouldn't believe where we went today. This team has come so far, more than anyone thought. We all believed in ourselves and are so united."

La Serna (26-3) rode to its first-ever section title behind a stellar defense that shut out all five of its playoff opponents.

The Lancers took the early advantage after Nicole Reed won possession of a loose ball down the right side in the midfield and passed to Stacey Cervantes whose through-ball found sophomore Mariah Palmer. The forward had a one-on-one with Granite Hills goalkeeper Katy Nearhoff and scored to put La Serna up 1-0.

Bradbury later said that Palmer was offsides and believed that the referee was about 10 yards behind the play.

From that point on, La Serna dominated possession. The Lancers' midfielders won more of the balls, and their defense stepped in on the Cougars' down-field passes and never really allowed much execution from Granite Hills.

La Serna would score again in the 19th minute on a Reed goal, and the Lancers extended the lead to 3-0 in the 43rd minute when Cervantes juked a Granite Hills defender in front of the goal for the first of her two scores.

"Our defensive march broke down a little bit, something that we haven't done at all," Bradbury said of a Cougars' defense that shut out 18 opponents. "It's a game of what could've been. Hindsight's 20-20. Maybe make some different adjustments early on, but we stuck with our gameplan."

Prior to this season, knowing that Granite Hills only had two seniors (Emily Ochoa and Bodiford), Bradbury didn't make his expectations too lofty for the squad.

He thought the quarterfinals would be realistic, but his players wanted more. So the coaching staff pushed them.

"We stepped up our conditioning and stepped up our possession style," Bradbury said. "We became very, very hard on (the players) about executing on first touch and touching with a purpose. We really went at them hard, and they wanted more.

"Every time I pushed them, they wanted more. Every time they wanted more I gave them more. We just came up short."

On the bright side, much of the team that beat No. 1 Serrano in the semifinals is returning next year.

"It was a great experience for them," Bradbury said. "It's very painful. It's a great motivator going into next season. Great motivator coming so close, being here and tasting it.

"I can tell you that next year come playoff time, we'll be there, and we'll be that much tougher to beat in the playoffs next year.

"And I salute anyone that can take us down."

The Cougars' season may not be over quite yet.

Today, Granite Hills will find out if it gets to compete in the CIF SoCal Regional Soccer Championships.

The regionals are divided into three divisions by school size, and four Southern Section teams will be represented in each division.

C.J. Daft can be reached via e-mail at christiand@vvdailypress.com or at 951-6275.